Skinwalker by Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock #1)

From the book: A year ago Jane nearly lost her life taking down an entire blood family of deadly rogue vampires that preyed on the helpless local populace of an Appalachian town. Now, after months of recuperation, she’s back and ready to fight again. Except this time, she’s hired by those she’s trained to kill—vampires…

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind—a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. Back from hiatus, she’s hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katies’s Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who’s killing other vamps.

 Amidst a bordello full of real “ladies of the night,” and a hot Cajun biker with a panther tattoo who stirs her carnal desire, Jane must stay focused and complete her mission—or else the next skin she’ll need to save just may be her own…

When I spied this book, I knew I wanted to read it. A full blooded Cherokee staring as the heroine of the book instead of ending up on the sidelines only to impart some wisdom and disappear. This story started out in "Strange Brew" under the name "Kits". However, you do not have to read that short story before you pick up this book. This book stands well on it's own.

Within Jane, she has the spirit/magic and energy of "Beast" who in one life was a mountain lion. They share a precarious relationship in which they have to agree who is alpha and control of the body. She is able to tap into Beast's energy and strength, and Beast is also able to tap into her power. It is an interesting relationship and is quite humorous at times. Beast has a better sense of humor than Jane in my opinion. Oh, and before I get into the rest of the review, I must mention "Bitsa" as well. Bitsa is Jane's bike and one I'd love to have (if I had any coordination at all, that is...)

The story is fast paced. I was surprised there would be so much mystery within the rogue vampire as it seemed that her job was very straight forward. Find the rogue, kill it. But with this story, tracking the rogue proved to provide more information than even Jane would have thought possible. Information about vampires she thought she'd never possess and more importantly, information about herself. Now, with her distant forgotten past less mysterious, will she be able to put together all the puzzle pieces to stop the rogue? Did she trust the right people? Heh... not going to tell you. You'll have to pick this one up to find out.

I gave this book 4 stars and recommend this one to anyone to loves a good urban fantasy. "Blood Cross" is the next book in this series which has just been published. I wish I had the second one in my hand, but alas, I have to wait to see what other things Jane discovers.

Oh, and as a little trivia I thought I'd add.. In the book, the vampires hate to be called vamps. They prefer Mithrains. Jane connected it to Mithra, but was not confirmed in her observation. Mithra is a sun god in an old religion. So, the question remains... was Faith Hunter using it as tongue in cheek, or is there more to the story. Hope we find out in this series. :)